Review of 40 Year Old Virgin, The

Introduction

We`ve been exposed to enough cheap-humour teen flick nonsense over the past half decade to know what to expect - plenty of sex talk, toilet humour, `huggies`-romance and frat party excess all wrapped up in a distinctly unoriginal package of Punk-pop soundtrack coupled with all the visual direction of an orang-utan-with-a-camcorder. But what happens when they grow up? What happens when not only the characters, but the film actually hits a maturity level above `toddler`?

This is the situation which `The 40 year-old Virgin` presupposes. Andy Stitzer (played by Steve Carell) is an anally retentive man of two score years, who just happens not to have ever had intercourse, much to the amusement and subsequent angst of his `Smart-Tech` electronics store colleagues - nearly all of whom (including Carell) starred in Will Ferrell`s `Anchorman` (2004). Fighting a losing battle against their attempts to release him from his curse, the whole `virgin` tag becomes more of a burden than ever before.

However, he soon takes a fancy to the rather delectable Trish (played by Catherine Keener) who owns a `We Sell your stuff on Ebay` store over the road from his own place of work, and manages to pluck up the courage to ask her out. As their relationship quickly progresses, his insecurities, inexperience and fear about `sexing it up` with her rear their ugly head, and the two of them impose a `No sex before twenty dates` ban on their relationship.

As a result, sex takes a back seat, and he starts to enjoy all the great things about relationships that would become more apparent to most of us men, if our damn appendages didn`t get in the way. That`s until Trish suggests that Andy sells his collection of `Mint on Card` action figures on Ebay …

Video

From the outset, this is a very `2005-looking` movie. There certainly isn`t any sort of classic tone or air of legend about it, but it comes up with the goods in terms of providing a clear and crisp picture quality.

Audio

The audio aspects may SOUND great, but the soundtrack is without many highlights. The most notable exception to this is the cast rendition of `Hair`s `Age of Aquarius`, right at the end of the movie, which seems bizarrely tagged on with no contextual element to it`s inclusion whatsoever. Which, of course, makes it a whole lot funnier.

Features

The extras included are a movie commentary by the writers, deleted scenes, gag reel and several featurettes, including; `Andy`s fantasies`, `Cal and Paula`, `Advice from Mooj`, `Line-O Rama`, `My Dinner with Stormy` (Seth Rogen interviews a porn star for a part in the film) and `You know how I know you`re gay?`.

The latter of the features is by far the most worthy inclusion. An extended version of a scene in the movie, Andy`s friends David (Clueless` Paul Rudd) and Cal (Seth Rogan) play a beat `em up on a games console and argue about who is the `gayest`. Maybe this sort of thing shouldn`t really be that funny (after all, the Civil Partnership Act`s effective blessing of gay marriages as of December 21st should mean that - in the UK at least - we`ve gotten over this particular type of humour) … but it is.

Conclusion

Any film whose promotional material uses the tag-line `The longer you wait, the harder it gets` should be approached with caution. Thankfully, this big bear of a movie has been neutered, rendering it both charming AND funny.

Sure, there is the arsenal of obvious gags, which range from the undeniable `hits` to the tragic `misses`, but there is also a great volume of subtler material contained within. This mainly revolves around the awkward situations that Andy finds himself in, due to his friends` (rather worrying) obsession with trying to get him laid - including almost bedding a transexual prostitute, being driven home by a drunken madwoman, and being found in possession of a haul of pornography so vast that would cause Hugh Hefner to blush.

In fact, it`s fair to say that most of the laughs are rather aptly provided by the main star. Carell is known to many as the man who plays the David Brent character in the American Office, but this is something of an `Annie Hall`-like outing for him, with his writing credit being shared with Director Judd Apatow (producer of many Will Ferrell-related projects). Unsurprising then, that Steve Carell was in Woody Allen`s last effort `Melinda and Melinda` and that much of the comedy in the `40 year old virgin` echoes Allen`s catalogue of intellectual takes on the subject of copulation, admittedly from a more childish perspective.

However, such immaturity is almost always a result of his friends` inability to be happy within their own relationships and sexuality. Whereas this could have easily led down the route of the `American Pie`/`Road Trip` style frat-nonsense, in `The 40 year old virgin`, it is, for the most part, extremely funny. Perhaps it`s because in this particular movie, there is a tongue in cheek element to it; the men who are supposedly au fait with sex are, on the whole, a lot mess mature about the subject than Andy. There`s probably a message in there somewhere.

Without much competition at the moment, the well proportioned mixture of all out disgusting language and nuance peppered clever scripting means that `The 40 year old Virgin` is probably the comedy of the year; As good a reason for celibacy as any.